Another Trojan Battle

Serious mountain climbers in Colorado try to bag all 52 of the state’s peaks that rise higher than 14,000 feet.

While trying to explain what it’s like to mount the Denver Center Theatre Company’s current project, “Tantalus,” the theater’s artistic director, Donovan Marley, initially said it was like scaling one of those 52 “fourteener” peaks. On second thought, however, he observed that there will never be 52 productions on the level of “Tantalus.”

Maybe the metaphor should be climbing all 52 peaks within a year--and perhaps also throwing in an ascent of Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the highest point in North America. All of that might add up to the mountaineering equivalent of producing “Tantalus.”

In the arena of big-budget North American theater, it’s unlikely that any production has ever had a longer running time (10 hours, 30 minutes) or rehearsal period (25 weeks before the scheduled previews--or 1,125 hours).

“Tantalus” may also set a record as the most expensive project ever in the American nonprofit theater. Primarily because of its long rehearsal period, “Tantalus” is expected to cost at least $8 million--not counting administrative support provided by the Denver company and by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, which houses the company.

The massive production will open in Denver on Oct. 21 and 22 and play through Dec. 2, then go on a tour of England before opening at the Royal Shakespeare Company in London next April.

The plot of “Tantalus” is, essentially, a freshly written dramatization of the Trojan Wars. Those wars were ignited when a great beauty left her husband and ventured across the water, supposedly seduced by a dashing suitor.

The history of “Tantalus” itself offers a very rough parallel. An English production was in the works for years. But when England and the rest of Europe failed to cough up enough money to pay for the premiere, “Tantalus” and its celebrated director, Sir Peter Hall, crossed the water at the invitation of a wealthy suitor: Donald Seawell, founder and chairman of the Denver Center.

Only in the last couple of months have European sources finally raised enough money to bring “Tantalus” back home. Fortunately, no transatlantic war will be necessary to accomplish this--the Americans and Europeans are working hand in hand.

Not that “Tantalus” hasn’t encountered additional hurdles in America. Mick Gordon, who was one of the project’s triumvirate of directors along with Hall and Hall’s son, Edward, left without warning in July. And playwright John Barton, who has been away from Denver during most of the rehearsals, became concerned enough about revisions of his script that he insisted that the billing be altered somewhat: The current phrasing calls the epic “Sir Peter Hall’s production of ‘Tantalus,’ adapted from a 10-play cycle by John Barton, with additional text by Colin Teevan” (who is an associate director).

“There’s something fascinating about trying to climb this mountain,” Marley said. “But there are days when I ask myself: ‘Why did we ever start?’ ”

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The process started within the brain of Barton, who is best known as an adapter of classics for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He devised an English historical revue, “The Hollow Crown,” and condensed Shakespeare history plays into “The Wars of the Roses.” Barton and Kenneth Cavender adapted ancient Greek plays into “The Greeks” in 1980.

Although “The Greeks” (seen in Los Angeles last fall in a revival by the Odyssey Theatre) used the works of the established Greek masters, some of whose styles are quite different from each other, “Tantalus” is Barton’s baby. In Peter Hall’s words, the text uses Barton’s “very lean, quick, unmetaphorical verse” to tell the ancient tales, without necessarily referring to the surviving Greek plays. Barton explores fragments and nooks and crannies of the Greek legends--some of which weren’t covered by Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides--and interprets them from a modern perspective.

“As I put the story together, it seemed to me there were obvious gaps; for example, there is no play about why the Trojans take in the wooden horse,” Barton said in a statement issued by the Denver Center (he was not available for an interview). “I set about telling the story in my way, sometimes overlapping with existing material. Basically I was exploring the question, both historical and mythical, of ‘what is the truth of it?’ ”

“Tantalus” is named after the mythical character whose underworld punishment was a sentence to stand in a tantalizing pool of water that would drain whenever he tried to drink, near a tree bearing fruit that would be blown out of his reach whenever he tried to grasp it and under a rock that appeared ready to topple on him at any second. This story is not part of Barton’s script, but the production design will include a visual reminder of Tantalus’ plight. Tantalus’ situation, according to Barton, is “a wonderful, paradoxical, ironical metaphor for civilization and the human condition.” Hall points to the rock overhanging Tantalus as a symbol of such contemporary threats as environmental or nuclear disaster.

Barton began working on “Tantalus” in the early ‘80s and continued during three administrations of the Royal Shakespeare Company, using a commission from the company. Finally, in 1996, he turned in a very long script.

Hall, the founding artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, was the logical director for the project--he and Barton were chums at Cambridge University, and Barton had been one of Hall’s first RSC appointments. By the time “Tantalus” emerged, Hall had long since left the RSC to run the National Theatre of Great Britain and then his own company. In Los Angeles, he is known for directing two Shakespeare plays in repertory last summer at the Ahmanson Theatre, where he will return for a “Romeo and Juliet” next year.

At age 69 and with those credits, Hall might have been forgiven if he chose not to tackle something as potentially grueling as “Tantalus,” but he eagerly took it on.

“I’ve done a lot of biggies, but what’s different about this is that it’s not only big, but new,” Hall said, looking Orson Welles-like as he lunched on sushi in an office adjacent to the Denver Center, with “Tantalus” storyboards covering the wall behind him.

Producer Michael Kustow began the task of assembling a consortium of co-producers. The goal was for each of six organizations to contribute $1 million. The six included the RSC (which is where the production was supposed to originate), the British government, the Greek National Theatre, the Greek government--and two American representatives: Yale University and, fortunately for the survival of the project, Denver Center.

The consortium still hadn’t raised enough money last year. A change in the Greek government’s culture ministry temporarily derailed the Greek government’s participation. With the RSC forced to commit to a season a year in advance, “it looked as if it would wither on the vine,” Denver Center founder Seawell said. “We might have lost Peter Hall” and other important members of the production team. So Seawell stepped forward and offered to produce the premiere in Denver, paying for the entire production out of Denver money.

Denver’s involvement stems from a long relationship between Seawell--who turned 88 on Aug. 1--and the RSC. Before he ever lived in Denver, Seawell was a lawyer and producer whose friends and clients included such theatrical luminaries as Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and Tallulah Bankhead. Among his productions were the RSC’s American appearances, and he became a member of the RSC board of governors.

Another of Seawell’s clients, Denver Post heiress Helen Bonfils, asked him to fend off a takeover attempt at the newspaper and then made him the publisher in 1966. When she died six years later, Seawell was left in charge of not only the newspaper, but also the Bonfils family foundations. It was that money, supplemented by the 1980 sale of the Post to Times Mirror (former publisher of the Los Angeles Times) that enabled Seawell to create and sustain the Denver Center, which now boasts of being the world’s largest performing arts center under one roof.

It’s also this Bonfils-fed Denver Center endowment, which Seawell said is valued in nine figures and which swelled with the ‘90s stock market, that is paying for “Tantalus”--although Seawell says contributions are thankfully accepted.

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When the Denver production of “Tantalus” was announced last year, the estimated running time was 15 hours, which would span three days. Now it’s down to 10 1/2 hours, and most performances will occur over two days (although one-day marathons are available Nov. 18 and 25 and Dec. 2).

Hall attributes most of the apparent shrinkage to an inaccurate initial estimate that allotted 1 1/2 minutes per page. Because the lines are short, a more accurate speed is one minute per page, he said. “We haven’t cut a great deal,” he said in a June interview. However, on the evening before the interview, he told a public forum in Denver that because “Tantalus” is a series of new plays, “they need editing, cutting, improvising.”

Playwright Barton has stayed away from most of the rehearsals because he needs to be close to his regular medical care for a back problem, Seawell said. However, Seawell has kept in touch with Barton, and “I’m sure he’s unhappy about a lot” of the changes of his text, the producer acknowledged. At the same time, Seawell added, “he recognizes that some lines have to be changed in the directing process. When he sees it, he’ll be happy with a lot of it.” Barton’s fully intact text will be published as a book in time for the opening.

Because of its scale, Hall designed the production as a collaborative effort among three directors--although they were never intended to be complete equals. Hall picked the other two, who each had other assignments along the way, and Hall will have the final word on the production. He chose his son Edward, 34, who has a respectable list of his own directing credits as well as plenty of experience assisting his father, and Mick Gordon, 30, artistic director of London’s 70-seat Gate Theatre and a former student of Hall’s.

All three directors were slated to appear at a June 22 public forum sponsored by the Denver Center. However, Gordon wasn’t there, and Peter Hall told the crowd the charming story of how Gordon had phoned from Argentina, where he had been directing a production of “My Fair Lady,” to say that he had proposed marriage to an Argentine woman. The night of the forum in Denver was his only opportunity to meet his in-laws, he said, asking for everyone’s understanding. Hall went on to laud the “extraordinary energy” of Gordon’s London theater company, and then the Halls, father and son, proceeded to explain how well the three-director system was working.

Perhaps, however, it wasn’t working so well for Gordon. On July 17, he failed to return to Denver from a weekend trip to London, and Marley received a fax from Gordon’s agent saying that Gordon felt he didn’t have enough creative control.

According to Marley, everyone in Denver who knew Gordon was completely surprised by his decision. Gordon had recently been assigned the primary responsibility for four of the 10 parts of “Tantalus,” including the beginning and the ending--and Gordon had known from the start that Peter Hall would have the final say, Marley said. Gordon could not be reached for comment.

Gordon’s departure might have been expected to affect the rehearsal schedule, which Peter Hall, speaking in June, had already described as “four weeks behind”--especially since Edward Hall began a previously scheduled leave of absence June 24 to stage “Henry V” for the Royal Shakespeare Company and then get married. The younger Hall will return in early September. However, speaking in early August, Seawell declared that “there hasn’t been a single ripple” from Gordon’s abrupt withdrawal. Two associate directors already were assisting Hall, and one of them--Anthony Powell--has stepped in for Gordon.

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A couple of the original cast members exited during the spring--one was “not used to highly verbal text,” said Peter Hall, and another “found our techniques alarming, especially the masks.” Some of the actors will wear masks, although Hall interprets the word broadly to mean “an element of formalism that puts a magnifying glass on emotion--it could be the way they speak or are made up,” in addition to literal masks.

Four American and four British actors make up the principal cast, each playing four to six roles. The 10 female chorus members/understudies are all Americans, as are eight male ensemble members/ understudies and two understudies. When Hall was casting, he said, he had to seek not only top talent, but also those with the temperament to be happy during the fifth month of rehearsals--”you have to be very, very level-headed.”

“You have to check that ego at the door every day,” actress Annalee Jefferies said at the June public forum. “Malleability is what I have to learn and relearn.”

Added actor Robert Petkoff: “I could have sworn that by now none of the actors would be speaking to each other. But you can put up with a lot . . . it never gets dull.” There was so much to learn, he added, that “by the time we come back to things we knew we had right [weeks earlier], we can’t even remember them.”

If all of this sounds forbidding, Peter Hall wants to dispel that notion. “I can’t emphasize enough--it is not a culture pill,” he told the public forum. Although he has staged Greek tragedy and said he will do so again, “Tantalus” “is not Greek tragedy. . . . If you feel you have to bone up on your Aeschylus, don’t come.

“It’s all very sexy, contradictory, anarchic. I hope quite a lot of you will be shocked.”

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“Tantalus,” Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Previews begin Sept. 15-16. Opens Oct. 21-22. 2 p.m., 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 2. $130-$225 (previews), $240-$280 after Oct. 21. Some performances include meals. (800) 641-1222. More info: https://www.denvercenter.org.